Antimalarial properties of SAABMAL(®): an ethnomedicinal polyherbal formulation for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria infection in the tropics

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Malaria is a serious problem in the countries of the developing world. As the malaria parasite has become resistant to most of the antimalaria drugs available currently, there is a need to search for newer drugs. This study reports the pharmaceutical quality and in vivo antimalarial activities of a polyherbal formulation (SAABMAL(®)) used as malarial remedy in Nigeria. METHODS: The antiplasmodial activity of SAABMAL(®) was determined by using the 4-day suppressive test in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice. The formulation was tried on three different experimental animal models for in vivo antimalarial activities, which are prophylactic, suppressive and curative in mice. Chloroquine and pyrimethamine were used as standard drugs for comparison. RESULTS: The suppressive study showed that, SAABMAL(®) (200 and 400 mg/kg/bw) significantly (P<0.01) produced a suppression (29.39 - 100%) of parasitaemia in a dose-dependent manner, while the curative study showed that SAABMAL(®) at 400 mg significantly (P<0.01) reduced (95.80%) parasitaemia compared with controls. The mean survival time of SAABMAL(®)-treated groups (100 and 200 mg/kg) was higher than that of the chloroquine-treated group. Histopathologically, no changes were found in the spleen of both untreated and treated groups. SAABMAL(®) capsules were of good mechanical properties with low weight variation and high degree of content mass uniformity. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained in this study showed the efficacy of SAABMAL(®), a herbal antimalarial formulation against chloroquine sensitive malaria and its potential use in the treatment of uncomplicated malaria infection. Further studies need to be done in humans to test its efficacy and safety for its potential use as an antimalarial drug.